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THE NEW YORKER, MARCH 21, 2016
and it's common for a major fashion
house to turn out five or six collections
a year. (Karl Lagerfeld has said, "Fash-
ion is a sport now: you have to run.")
Scott still produces two collections a
year for his own line, a balancing act
that he called "normal and easy." For
Moschino, he produces two main col-
lections, of around two hundred and
twenty pieces each; a women's "pre col-
lection," around two hundred pieces;
and two men's collections---all with bags
and accessories. Beginning with his "Fast
Fashion" collection, in , Scott began
making an extra batch called a "capsule
collection": between twenty and thirty
pieces that hit stores the day after the
show, to capitalize on the social-media
frenzy.
Scott designs by giving detailed in-
structions to a sta of around forty-five
people. He is a fan of theatrical runway
moments. For the evening-wear por-
tion of the "Fast Fashion" show, Bill
Shapiro, the head designer for women's
clothes, recalled, "He said, 'I envision an
opera cape and someone coming to the
opera.' " Shapiro acted out the part of a
fancy woman in a cape---" 'But, instead
of it being just a solid fabric, it's cov-
ered in---a beer can! A redneck beer-can
print! Or there's someone in a gorgeous,
flouncy evening dress---but it's inspired
by greasy potato chips! ' "
For all Scott's love of lowbrow, he's
an equal-opportunity enthusiast. The
collections he was working on when I
visited shared a more esoteric reference
point: they were an homage to the Brit-
ish artists Gilbert & George, whose
graphic, photo-based works often in-
clude pictures of themselves dressed in
business suits. "I've loved their work for
so long, I don't know when I ever didn't
know about it," Scott told me.
The artists had given him access to
their archives, and he'd found one print,
from , that shows a man wearing a
Moschino sweater with a peace sign on
it. The sweater is reflected in a mirror.
"Our print is already warpy; they made
it warpier," Scott said, with satisfaction.
From early afternoon until around
: . ., Scott reviewed men's acces-
sories. An item would be presented to
him---a cap, a shoe---and he would play
with it absentmindedly and finally nod,
or order some tweak. Ideas were com-
municated in fashion shorthand. The
most common word---the universal
designation of goodness---was "cute."
It could apply to a range of items, from
a bondage-themed boot to a black
leather sneaker decorated with the wavy
peace signs. (Scott pronounced that
"super cute.")
At one point, Scott was joined by
Claudia Cillo, Moschino's head of mer-
chandising. In general, she pushed for
more and bigger logos, which do well
in international luxury markets. "The
customers like to see it," she declared.
Scott studied a selection of high-
tops with a Moschino logo. Cillo o ered
an uncharacteristic opinion: "For me,
it's too much logo."
Scott doesn't like half-measures.
"This one I can live with," he said. "Of
course it's too much. It's bwah! "
Cillo said, "In the U.S.A. we have
very good sell-through on this shape.
And it will be available in gold and
chunky nickel."
Scott smiled. "Chunky nickel," he
said. "It sounds like an ice cream flavor
from Ben & Jerry's."
S ' reference
kids' stu : toys, cartoons. He's made
a SpongeBob SquarePants fur coat for
Moschino; the latest Jeremy Scott col-
lection featured tributes to "The Ren &
Stimpy Show." "I think it has to do with
the fact that all those things are pop
icons," he told me, adding that he likes
their graphic shapes and bright colors.
"I'm not, like, a Michael Jackson-type
person who's obsessed with childhood."
Scott grew up partly on a farm, in
Lowry City, Missouri, and partly in a
suburb outside Kansas City. His favor-
ite toys were Star Wars figurines. He
didn't make them do battle; he liked
their looks too much. "I didn't really
play with them, because I didn't want
them to get damaged," he told me. "I'd
set them up and photograph them,
so that they would look like a film
still." Scott is the youngest of three
children, and he is the only one in the
family who spent his early years play-
ing dress-up. His mother, a teacher,
wears glasses and T-shirts, and his
father prefers a farmer look---flannel
shirts, suspenders.
Fashion people know the Scotts.
Since Jeremy began designing, nearly
twenty years ago, they've attended al-
most every show. At his most recent
"We see strong evidence that North Korea
has developed atomic hot wings."
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